Montana sheep hunt closed
Wild Sheep
This hit Reuters last night doesn't say home many units.
news.yahoo.com/montana-officials-end-bighorn-sheep-hunting-die-off-032053608.html
There was only one tag in the area. So its not like its going to be a big deal and we have plenty of sheep we can move into the area as soon as the heard is healthy again.
Wow..."their numbers had fallen to just tens of thousands in the first decades of the 20th century because of unregulated hunting...".
Another uninformed journalist attempting to write about a subject they know little about. Try to make the hunters the bad guys.
EMERGENCY ACTION
Sheep Die-Off Prompts Hunting District Closure
Montana's Fish & Wildlife Commission today closed a bighorn sheep hunting district near Gardiner due to an ongoing disease-related die-off.
The emergency action came in response to a pneumonia die-off that began late last year in bighorn sheep hunting district 305, near Gardiner. So far at least 34 sheep from the native herd have died.
Wildlife biologists who conducted an aerial survey of the area Sunday counted 55 bighorn sheep—found another dead animal and a number of sick ones—where 89 healthy sheep were counted last year.
"The disease event is not over yet," said Karen Loveless, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' wildlife biologist in Livingston.
Nearly 40 percent of the herd in the Gardiner and Cinnabar areas, and 40 percent or more of the mature rams, have died.
Commissioners voted unanimously via today's conference call to close the 2015 bighorn sheep season in hunting district 305 to further protect the herd and to preclude hunters from applying for the hunting district's lone permit.
Commission Chair Dan Vermillion said the herd is important to hunters and others who have become accustomed to watching the animals' mating rituals near Yellowstone National Park during late November's bighorn sheep rutting season.
Prior to this emergency closure, FWP had offered one legal ram license in hunting district 305. So far about 10 people have already applied online for the license. Those applicants, and others who might apply, will be offered the opportunity to apply elsewhere or be given a refund. Last year about 100 hunters applied for the district's license.
Baring another disease outbreak, or other unforeseen events, hunting district 305 would reopen to hunting when the population recovers, officials said. The 2015 hunting season in hunting district 305 would have run Sept. 5-14 for archery and Sept. 15-Oct. 31 for the general season.
The deadline to apply for moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goat and bison permits is May 1.
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No big deal, Dan says. There's a conservationist for you.
In the real world this happens to sheep almost every year. Its called nature that's what sheep do. We have one unit that has 20 to 30 sheep killed by cars every year.
There is nothing "natural" about bighorn sheep dying from a disease they contracted from domestic sheep brought here from Europe 150 years ago.
Did you just bump your head? there are no domestic sheep with in 50 miles of this unit. We use to have millions of bison in the west. There gone now they were killed by lead. We have thousands of sheep here in Montana. And as long as we don't give them away. We have a good supply to restock are heard.
So... according to you CO Oak - there is also nothing natural about people shooting animals with compound bows that didn't exist 150 years ago or hitting sheep on the road with cars that were not around 150 years ago. This is a part of life that we must deal with and we do deal with here in MT every year.
Dan has done more for the big game and the opportunity to hunt big game in MT than most people ever have or ever will.
This isn't isolated, same issue right now in ND also. It bears watching and consideration. At some point the underlining cause need to be addressed.
This isn't isolated, same issue right now in ND also. It bears watching and consideration. At some point the underlining cause need to be addressed.
"there are no domestic sheep with in 50 miles of this unit."
There was in the fall of 2013. Read the link.
Happened in 270 just a couple years ago.
This is a big deal and it's happening all too often lately. To say it's no big deal because we can just replace them is pretty shortsighted.
When this happens in the breaks and kills 3/4's of the sheep up there, I'm guessing it will suddenly become a big deal.
"Happened in 270 just a couple years ago."
Along with the Bonner herd, and both Rock Creek units.
I thought maybe the sheep in this unit got wind that TBM was going to sheep hunt in that unit & just committed suicide....
If there's sheep in Gardiner it's a boutique herd. The real problem predates this situation - Yellowstone NP doesn't include lowland winter range. When the ungulates migrate out of the park it's onto private land. Not much can be done about that now.
If there's sheep in Gardiner it's a boutique herd. The real problem predates this situation - Yellowstone NP doesn't include lowland winter range. When the ungulates migrate out of the park it's onto private land. Not much can be done about that now.
The problem is the rancher put his mutts there on purpose to infect the big horns after a dust up with the blm.
Bill Hoppe put the sheep there to attract wolves. He didn't believe that his domestic "mutts" would transmit anything. He still doesn't believe he had anything to do with it after this die off.
It's documented and proven that when the two species come in contact the wild sheep die. No different than Native American's and our European disease small pox.
Quit the sportsman old Hoppe is.
Why would he want to attract wolves? To his own sheep? Just curious. Makes no sense to me.
He blames wolves for all the wildlife woes of the west. So he wanted wolves to kill his sheep so he could kill them, and or, the Government trappers would have to kill them.
